The Mirror of Flame: A Treatise on the Fivefold Fire

by Fahreed ibn Qadim, Archflame of the Infernari

Written in the Year of Ember 5093, beneath the three moons on the shore of the Sea of Glass

In the name of Flame, which is both veil and revelation, I set ink to parchment that wisdom might survive the wind.

Know, O seeker of the Hidden Fire, that not all flames burn alike. Many see the dancing tongues of a woodfire and think it no more than the hungry spirit of combustion, a servant to pot and pyre. Yet I, Fahreed ibn Qadim, son of Southrun, once wandered through the Khard — that cruel emptiness which was once a thriving jungle — and there beheld the secret soul of fire.

It was in the third night of my thirst, when my camel had perished and my tongue was parched with salt, that I found shelter in a crevice of obsidian. I sought only shade, but what I found was the last campfire of a long-dead caravan. Its ashes, unscattered by the years, still whispered of heat, and I, delirious with visions, kindled them with breath and prayer.

The flames rose first red, then orange, then yellow, and blue and white — pure as first morning. I fell to my knees, and in that fire saw five truths, each color a veil drawn from the One Flame, each veil a path to mastery. Thus was born the Doctrine of the Fivefold Flame, which I now share with thee.

• The Red Flame – Flame of Blood and First Desire
• This is the fire of life’s beginning, the warmth in the infant’s cry, the soldier’s rage, the lover’s heat. It is the easiest to summon, and the easiest to squander. Red fire obeys the flesh and craves fuel — wood, wine, war.
• To conjure the Red Flame is to summon will untempered by wisdom. It breaks the ice but does not question why. Use it in battle, in love, in the ignition of all new things — but beware, for too long in red fire and a man becomes a beast.

• The Orange Flame – Flame of Transformation and Hunger
• Born of dying light and hungering shadow, the Orange Flame is the fire of change. It burns away the old to make way for the new. It is the color of revolutions, betrayals, and the desert wind that reshapes the dunes.
• Those who walk the Orange Path must suffer loss and change of self. This flame is used in rites of passage, unmaking, and rebirth. But if left unchecked, it consumes not only the dross, but also the gold.

• The Yellow Flame – Flame of Command and Clarion Thought
• The Yellow Flame burns steady and tall, like the sun at zenith. It is the fire of the wise ruler, the just judge, the learned master. It does not flicker; it stands.
• From this flame comes the power to bind spirits, to command lesser fires, to enchant the flesh with protection. The Yellow Flame is the birthright of kings and Archflames alike, and it is kindled in those who burn neither too hot nor too cold, but with purpose and control.

• The Blue Flame – Flame of Hidden Mind and Perfect Focus
• O most secret flame, how cold you appear to the unknowing! Blue is the fire of seers and sages, the flame that leaves no ashes. It reveals, it cuts away illusion, it whispers truths too sharp for many to bear.
• To touch the Blue Flame is to touch fire as idea, not substance. Its mastery lies not in destruction, but in revelation. I glimpsed it when I burned a page of prophecy and the ink rearranged itself in the air.
• Let those who seek its strength be prepared to know more than is safe.

• The White Flame – Flame of the Final Gate
• This is not fire as the world knows it, but fire as the gods remember it. The White Flame is perfection beyond form — it destroys utterly, and yet gives birth to new stars.
• It appears rarely, and only to those whose soul has been burned clean in the other four. It is used to open doorways between the Realms, to bind the divine, to purify that which is too tainted for any lesser flame.
• I saw it in the Khard, rising from ash untouched by time, and I knew: I had died and been reborn.

Thus are the five, yet they are one.
And the one, though it be flame, is also mirror.
Look deep, O seeker, and you will find yourself within it — burning, changing, reigning, seeing, vanishing.

So writes Fahreed of the Glass Horizon, Archflame and Wayfarer, whose fire will burn when even stars forget their names.